Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

Andromeda Stardust

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    18,891

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    16

Posts posted by Andromeda Stardust

  1. Posted · Edited by stardust4ever

    @iesposta: They've already added more stuff to the ROM since it showed in the store. Check the thread "Pacmam 4k with cutscenes." The version in the store presumably doesn't have these elements added. That's the other problem with buying homebrews: they are constantly being tweaked, so by the time the cart arrives in the mail, there's already a better version on the Internets... :P

  4. Posted

    What historical documentation has most high profile buyers not revealed to the world? It might be like a ROM dump in a way. Someone may pay more to be the first to know and/or dump the historical documentation.

    Or he may just hoard it. A lot of high profile prototype owners like to sit on the game and refuse to dump it unless the community pays a ransom note on it. Plenty of NES prototypes have been lost to time that way. We don't know what the buyer will ultimately do with it; technically he could use it to wipe his butt if he wanted, and has every right to do so. "Air Raid" seems genuinely concerned about the preservation and documentation of the game. If it was mine, I would go the extra mile and buy a brand new scanner just to document it (I actually happen to have a 10+ years old scanner that's in perfect working condition, but no Windows 7 drivers so I can't use it).

  6. Posted · Edited by stardust4ever

    Okay, I just saw the store video. I swear the video was not up in the store last time I posted. That game looks freakin' sweet!!! I'm going to plug this into my Atari now while my cart floats about in postal limbo...

     

    EDIT: Man, I need to work on my game. I just barely managed to get to the first intro screen. I noticed that you can select the start fruit, but do the difficulty switches do anything?

  7. Posted · Edited by stardust4ever

    Heck, with a 32kb ROM, you could have a full 4k bank dedicated to every screen, plus intermissions!

     

    The DK image could be created without flicker by layering sprites...

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by stardust4ever

    I was going to PM you the ROM, but someone already linked to it publicly.

     

    RetroUSB also sells a repro cartridge using all-new boards:

    http://www.retrousb....products_id=103

     

    If you are a Duck Hunt fan, I also recommend VS Duck Hunt as well: it has arcade dip-switches built into the cart, and you can actually shoot the dog in this version!

    http://www.retrousb....&products_id=96

     

    Two of my favorite NES repros!

    • Like 1

  12. Posted · Edited by stardust4ever

    Couldn't the girders be made with playfield graphics? One problem with the screen shot is there's no sprite tables left over for the barrels. I'm all for a new VCS Donkey Kong. The existing game is playable, especially the barrel stage, but the brown graphics look like roach poop. DK Jr is even worse. It will take more than a few gameplay tweaks though. A massive overhaul is necessary, and it will require expanding to 4 or possibly even 8k.

     

    I know it's not Atari, but currently, this NES repro of "Donkey Kong: Complete Edition" is the best home console version of Donkey Kong out there:

    http://www.retrousb....products_id=103

    dkGame2.png

     

    Obviously, the VCS can't handle true tile-based sprites like the original arcade and NES, but couldn't the mechanics at least be improved? Multicolor red/blue/cream Mario sprite? The cement buckets (aka "pies") on the second level could definitely utilize the hardware sprite multipliers. Barrels would be trickier since they have to roll down a slope. A nice stack of 4 DKs like in the arcade original's "how high can you go" screen would also be cool. That could probably be pulled off with double-wide sprites for Donkey Kong.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    If it is a manual or some kind of documentation then would they get more money if they just describe what kind of information it has instead of scanning or revealing the specifics?

    This type of information is important for historical documentation. Most high profile buyers tend to hoard their collections and not reveal them to the world. If a manual indeed exists, this is probably the one and only golden opportunity to reveal it to the world.

  15. Posted

    Super Mario makes sense to me, graphically the games are the same (different layouts, etc..i know), hardware is almost the same, gameplay on the arcade version is more difficult (they wanted your quarters). Having the same level of difficulty on home version wouldn't have worked.

     

    In all reality, the VS unisystem games were released on Famicom first, then Nintendo messed with the game when they released it in VS Arcade. They fudged up the levels on the Arcade version just enough to annoy people, but not enough to make it feel like a new game, (example: Lost Levels). The Arcade version basically plays like an incomplete SMB ROM hack. Duck Hunt (you can shoot the dog in the arcade version, among other things), Super Mario, Hogan's Alley, Excite Bike were all ported from the Famicom to the Arcade. That's why the VS Unisystem is just modified NES hardware in a really big enclosure. Also remember the NES released in the states well after the Famicom in Japan, so many of those games were already out in Japan prior to NES launch in the USA.

  16. Posted

    How about 10,000 enemy sprites on the VCS? :D

     

    It's something that can be accomplished with modern muscle. I was blown away while playing Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door when I went into the first dungeon in the game, and the room filled up with literally hundreds of dry-bones onscreen simultaneously. That's like 100s of 2D sprites onscreen at once, with fluid lag-free animation. One of my more impressive graphical moments on Game Cube.

     

    When you said "10,000 enemy sprites," the first thing I thought of were the Orcs armies in Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but in realtime. I'd bet the PS4 or Xbox720 will be able to handle that sort of graphical load, but I'll be gaming on Wii-U because Nintendo is more fun and innovative.

  17. Posted

    I know this site mostly discusses 2nd generation hardware, but the NES had some of the best arcade ports. Best home console version of Donkey Kong by far is Donkey Kong: Complete Edition, leaked by Nintendo in 2010. Apparently back in the day, when Nintendo converted Donkey Kong for NES, they couldn't make the code to fit on a standard cartridge without expensive mapper hardware, so they removed the Cement aka "Pie factory" level from the game, as well as a couple of animations. The original game sat in the Nintendo vault for years before it was released as a virtual bonus item on a special edition red Wii. Well, somebody extracted the NES ROM data (easy to do since VC games actually use ROMs complete with iNES headers), and retrozone now sells repros of this game, dubbed "DK 'Pie' Foundry" for 28 bucks at retrousb.com. That, and VS Duck Hunt (where you can actually shoot the Dog) are my favorite NES repros, but I love Atari too. IMO the Coleco 2600 DK cart sucks, but you can't stand in the way of progress...

  18. Posted

    Was any of this stuff incorporated into the Atariage Pacman 4k cart? Because I'm gonna be kicking myself for buying so early it if a better version comes out. I'll definitely have to load this in my Harmony cart later this evening; thanks for the update regardless.

  19. Posted

    Very good question. Judging by the fact the thread was already 3 years old before I bumped it, there may well have been some behind the scenes tweaking compared to the last publicly released version. I have confidence that Albert would not have added it to the store if it wasn't 100% ready for release. I'm curious too. So far, I've not seen a single Youtube video. I'll probably make one myself when I recieve the cart if someone else doesn't beat me too it. Atariage store needs more gameplay videos of it's games.

  20. Posted

    Yes, if you have access to a flatbed scanner, quality scans (at least 300dpi, preferably PNG or JPG 100%) of the box from all sides, cart label and backing, and any manual documentation you can find, would be a big plus for preservation and archival purposes. The scans currently available are pretty crappy imo. It woun't hurt the value, and there's no guarantee that the buyer will be willing to do this. Judging by it's scarcity, it's a miracle that the game has already been dumped. People would love to DL the manual as a PDF file (if a manual even exists) as this might give some clues about the company's background/origins.

    • Like 1
AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...